7. READING
AMAZING JOURNEYS
AMAZING JOURNEYS
ROUTE 66
U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926—with road signs erected the following year.[2] The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).
Vocabulary (from the text in the book)
by heart- from memory
desolate- deserted
disrepair- a condition requiring repairs.
out-of-the-way- lonely, remote, not frequent.
disrepair- a condition requiring repairs.
out-of-the-way- lonely, remote, not frequent.
Cool facts about the Route 66
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY
The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far Eastand the Sea of Japan.[1] With a length of 9,289 km (5,772 mi),[2] it is the longest railway line in the world. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea.
Vocabulary:
claustrophobic
an abnormal fear of being closed in or of being in a confined space
redundancy payment
a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
claustrophobic
an abnormal fear of being closed in or of being in a confined space
redundancy payment
a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
The 800-kilometre walk from the south of France to Spain is known as the Camino (St James' way). People usually start in the French Pyrenees and end in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. They either walk, cycle or go on horses or donkeys.
Vocabulary
blister
a small bubble-like elevation of the skin filled with serum, produced as a reaction to a burn, mechanical irritation, etc
set off
to embark on a journey
blister
a small bubble-like elevation of the skin filled with serum, produced as a reaction to a burn, mechanical irritation, etc
set off
to embark on a journey
Extra vocabulary:
bankrupt
officially say you have no money and cannot pay your debts
desolate
completely empty with no people or peasant scenery
disrepair
in a broken or damaged state
set off
start a journey
bankrupt
officially say you have no money and cannot pay your debts
desolate
completely empty with no people or peasant scenery
disrepair
in a broken or damaged state
set off
start a journey
10 journeys of a lifetime
Why stop in one place when a fantastic journey can be the holiday itself? From Everest to Timbuktu, Jill Hartley selects great adventures you will never forget
Most of our great journeys can be tackled by anyone of average fitness, but the following guide should help you decide
1 Ruta Maya Antigua - Quetzaltenango (Guatemala), then San Cristobal - Palenque - Merida (Mexico), Belize City - Caye Caulker (Belize), Tikal - Lake Atitlan - Antigua (Guatemala). Distance: 2,700 kilometres
A classic journey through Central America, tracing the route of the ancient Mayans, the indigenous people of Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Doing it by brightly painted chicken bus is part of the fun and is the best way to arrive at the colourful local markets, famed for their textiles. For a perfect combo, take in the Mexican Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Chichen Itza; chill out in Belize for white-water rafting and diving the barrier reef; then see Guatemala's great carpets of jungle, the volcanic landscapes of Lake Atitlan and Tikal, the most atmospheric of the Mayan sites, where the hush is pierced by screeching parrots, toucans and howler monkeys.
Transport: Bus
Timing: 22 days
Fitness: C
Do it with: Journey Latin America (020 8747 8315;www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk) includes all the above in its 21-night 'Quetzal' escorted tour, from £1,931
2 Milford Track, New Zealand
Teanau Downs - Milford Sound. Distance: 50km
Traversing the heart of South Island's wild fjord country, the Milford Track is often described as the finest walk in the world. Famed for spectacular sogginess, Milford in the rain - when torrents of water rush down the inky mountains - was the eighth wonder of the world according to Kipling. Highlights include a possible encounter with a genuine kiwi, periwinkle blue glacial lakes, sheer granite canyons and mystical mossy forests (very Lord of the Rings). On sunny days you can swim in icy water holes, and risk a drenching by walking right behind the roaring Sutherland Falls, fifth highest on the planet at 540m (1,904ft). The trek culminates in a boat trip on Milford Sound, home to fur seals and bottlenose dolphins.
Transport: Foot/boat
Timing: 5 days
Fitness: B
Do it with: High Places (0114 275 7500; www.highplaces.co.uk) offers a 15-night fly-drive tour of South Island, including the five-day guided trek, for £2,450
3 Road to Damascus
Damascus (Syria) - Petra (Jordan). Distance: 300km
In some ways there's never been a better time to visit the Middle East as continuing troubles mean fewer tourist hordes. Twinning Syria with Jordan combines the best of the region's famed crusader castles and desert cities. Damascus, once the centre of the Islamic world, and Jordan's Rose Red City of Petra, best seen from horseback, rank on the globe's must-see list alongside the pyramids and the Taj. Other high points of this road trip include the ancient caravan cities of Dura Europos and Palmyra and the well-preserved Roman city of Jerash. You also get the chance to rumble into the eerily quiet desert of Wadi Rum by 4WD. It's easy to see why the famed wind-whipped dunes starred in the film Lawrence of Arabia, as well as many others.
Transport: Bus/horse/4WD
Timing: 17 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Explore Worldwide (01252 760000; www.exploreworldwide.com) from £1,055
4 Glacier Express, Switzerland
London Waterloo - Switzerland return. Distance: 2,500km
Thanks to Eurostar, you can do the entire journey from the UK to Switzerland by train and experience some of the world's most stupendous alpine scenery without the airport crush. Linking the elegant, traffic-free resort of Zermatt with St Moritz, the idea is to hop on and off and walk in summer, ski in winter. First-class is a must for the wood-panelled dining car and unique bent-stemmed wine glasses to avoid a spill on steep gradients. The slow chug up the Rhone Valley to Andermatt, then over the Oberalp Pass down to Chur is the most thrilling section, best in winter when layers of meringue-like snow soften the mountains, waterfalls freeze rigid and you can wave at the skiers whooshing past.
Transport: Train
Timing: 10 days
Fitness: D
Do it with: Great Rail Journeys (01904 521940; www.greatrail.com) from £1,150 first class, £850 standard class, including dinner, B&B hotel accommodation
5 Road to Timbuktu, Mali
Bamako - Timbuktu. Distance: 900km
This fabled city in Mali, one of Africa's landlocked and least-visited countries, lures adventure travellers with the promise of a genuine time warp. On the southern edge of the Sahara, it is being slowly lost to the encroaching sands: so go before it disappears. Visit the 14th-century mosque with a mysterious door that has never been opened, meet the 15,000 remaining nomadic Tuareg, join them on a camel ride and sleep out under the stars. Other Mali highlights include sailing a traditional pinasse down the Niger river, camping out on the banks, and visiting the Dogon villages, known for their cave-like houses with stone steps scoured out of the cliff face. Don't go if you need fluffy towels and ice in drinks.
Transport: Bus/boat/camel
Timing: 14 days
Fitness: B/C
Do it with: The Imaginative Traveller (0800 316 2717; www.imaginative-traveller.com) includes all the above from £1,575; next departure October 2004
6 Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi. Distance: 1,700km
The bicycle is still the main means of transport in Asia's friendliest emerging country so it's the perfect way to get to know the locals. You don't have to pedal the entire distance from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in the south to Hanoi in the north as all public transport happily carries two wheels. Push yourself up mountain passes, wreathed in mists like an oriental painting then take it easier on the flat, alongside emerald rice paddies, dotted with temples and curvy pagodas. Don't miss: the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong lived like human moles and outwitted the Americans; China Beach, a white sand stunner where the troops came for R&R; or a sampan trip down the Perfume River. Transport: Bicycle
Timing: 19 days
Fitness: B Do it with: Exodus Biking Adventures (020 8675 5550;www.exodus.co.uk) from £1,595, excluding cycle hire
7 Everest Base Camp, Nepal
Kathmandu - Mt Everest. Distance: 250km
To the Sherpas and Tibetans, Everest is 'Chomolungma' - Mother Goddess of the Earth. To the rest of us, the crown jewel of the Himalayas invokes tales of unbelievable human courage and strength. Today a trek to Base Camp should be within range of any fit regular weekend walker. Those who've done it say nothing compares with that roof-of- the-world feeling as you stand there in awed silence surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks. That said, the Himalayas are as famed for their vibrant rhododendron forests as their snowy tops. You'll also need a camera for cliff-side monasteries with football playing monks in saffron robes, colourful yak trains accompanied by local black-eyed urchins and vertiginous swing bridges decorated with fluttering prayer flags.
Transport: Foot
Timing: 20 days
Fitness: A
Do it with: Walks Worldwide (01524 242000; www.walksworldwide.com) for £1,795, including time off in Kathmandu before and after the trek
8 Silk Route
Kashgar (China) then Tashkent - Samarkand - Khiva (Uzbekistan). Distance: 1,570km
The tangled alleyways, spice-laden bazaars and grand domed architecture of ancient Silk Road stopovers such as Tashkent, Kashgar and Samarkand are childhood storybook cities. Once the only trading and cultural link between the East and Europe, these central Asian 'caravan' towns were almost forgotten until their rediscovery by Russian and British spies, which only adds to the frisson of mystery. Aim to do it at leisure, starting in Beijing with time for the Great Wall, before moving on to the Heaven Lake at Urumqi, Kashgar with its celebrated Sunday market, Tashkent and Khiva - a mythical living museum of a city with minarets, mosques, tiny, twisting streets and pomegranate-red desert sunsets.
Transport: Car/plane
Timing: 21 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Audley Travel (01869 276217; www.audleytravel.com) features all the cities above with connecting flights, private car and driver for £3,250
9 North West Passage
Anchorage, Alaska (USA) - Anadyr (Russia) by air, then boat to Bering Strait - Herschel Island - Cambridge Bay - Beechey Island - Resolute (Canada). Distance: 4,700km
Often known as the Amundsen Route, this is a genuine epic voyage on little-explored waterways, crossing the Arctic Circle, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The excitement starts from day one with a helicopter transfer from Anchorage, Alaska, to your trusty ice-breaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. As well as stunning ice and snow scenery, including calving icebergs and glaciers, you should encounter polar bears, seals, musk oxen and arctic foxes. Highlights include whale-watching in the Bering Strait, visiting remote Inuit communities, and viewing the weathered remains of the Maud, the schooner in which Amundsen sailed the north polar basin in the 1920s.
Transport: Ship
Timing: 20 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Discover the World (01737 214250; www.discover-the-world.co.uk) offers the voyage above, including flights, from £6,969; next departure 26 July
10 Shogun Trail, Japan Tokyo - Fukuoka. Distance: 600km
A relatively new route, introduced in 2002, this follows the cross-country path taken by the Japanese nobility and Samurai warriors as they travelled each year from the feudal court in Tokyo to their regional palaces. Today's trail also makes use of the bullet train to Hakone, home to more than 60 temples and shrines; Kyoto, regarded as the cradle of Japan's culture as well as its loveliest city; and Hiroshima, where the Peace Memorial Park acts as a grim reminder of the first atom bomb. The route includes a cruise to the so-called 'Ninety Nine Islands', once important whaling ports, often overlooked by Western visitors .
Transport: Foot/train/boat
Timing: 13 days
Fitness: C
Do it with: Explore Worldwide (01252 760000; www.exploreworldwide.com) from £2,220
Why stop in one place when a fantastic journey can be the holiday itself? From Everest to Timbuktu, Jill Hartley selects great adventures you will never forget
Most of our great journeys can be tackled by anyone of average fitness, but the following guide should help you decide
1 Ruta Maya Antigua - Quetzaltenango (Guatemala), then San Cristobal - Palenque - Merida (Mexico), Belize City - Caye Caulker (Belize), Tikal - Lake Atitlan - Antigua (Guatemala). Distance: 2,700 kilometres
A classic journey through Central America, tracing the route of the ancient Mayans, the indigenous people of Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Doing it by brightly painted chicken bus is part of the fun and is the best way to arrive at the colourful local markets, famed for their textiles. For a perfect combo, take in the Mexican Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Chichen Itza; chill out in Belize for white-water rafting and diving the barrier reef; then see Guatemala's great carpets of jungle, the volcanic landscapes of Lake Atitlan and Tikal, the most atmospheric of the Mayan sites, where the hush is pierced by screeching parrots, toucans and howler monkeys.
Transport: Bus
Timing: 22 days
Fitness: C
Do it with: Journey Latin America (020 8747 8315;www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk) includes all the above in its 21-night 'Quetzal' escorted tour, from £1,931
2 Milford Track, New Zealand
Teanau Downs - Milford Sound. Distance: 50km
Traversing the heart of South Island's wild fjord country, the Milford Track is often described as the finest walk in the world. Famed for spectacular sogginess, Milford in the rain - when torrents of water rush down the inky mountains - was the eighth wonder of the world according to Kipling. Highlights include a possible encounter with a genuine kiwi, periwinkle blue glacial lakes, sheer granite canyons and mystical mossy forests (very Lord of the Rings). On sunny days you can swim in icy water holes, and risk a drenching by walking right behind the roaring Sutherland Falls, fifth highest on the planet at 540m (1,904ft). The trek culminates in a boat trip on Milford Sound, home to fur seals and bottlenose dolphins.
Transport: Foot/boat
Timing: 5 days
Fitness: B
Do it with: High Places (0114 275 7500; www.highplaces.co.uk) offers a 15-night fly-drive tour of South Island, including the five-day guided trek, for £2,450
3 Road to Damascus
Damascus (Syria) - Petra (Jordan). Distance: 300km
In some ways there's never been a better time to visit the Middle East as continuing troubles mean fewer tourist hordes. Twinning Syria with Jordan combines the best of the region's famed crusader castles and desert cities. Damascus, once the centre of the Islamic world, and Jordan's Rose Red City of Petra, best seen from horseback, rank on the globe's must-see list alongside the pyramids and the Taj. Other high points of this road trip include the ancient caravan cities of Dura Europos and Palmyra and the well-preserved Roman city of Jerash. You also get the chance to rumble into the eerily quiet desert of Wadi Rum by 4WD. It's easy to see why the famed wind-whipped dunes starred in the film Lawrence of Arabia, as well as many others.
Transport: Bus/horse/4WD
Timing: 17 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Explore Worldwide (01252 760000; www.exploreworldwide.com) from £1,055
4 Glacier Express, Switzerland
London Waterloo - Switzerland return. Distance: 2,500km
Thanks to Eurostar, you can do the entire journey from the UK to Switzerland by train and experience some of the world's most stupendous alpine scenery without the airport crush. Linking the elegant, traffic-free resort of Zermatt with St Moritz, the idea is to hop on and off and walk in summer, ski in winter. First-class is a must for the wood-panelled dining car and unique bent-stemmed wine glasses to avoid a spill on steep gradients. The slow chug up the Rhone Valley to Andermatt, then over the Oberalp Pass down to Chur is the most thrilling section, best in winter when layers of meringue-like snow soften the mountains, waterfalls freeze rigid and you can wave at the skiers whooshing past.
Transport: Train
Timing: 10 days
Fitness: D
Do it with: Great Rail Journeys (01904 521940; www.greatrail.com) from £1,150 first class, £850 standard class, including dinner, B&B hotel accommodation
5 Road to Timbuktu, Mali
Bamako - Timbuktu. Distance: 900km
This fabled city in Mali, one of Africa's landlocked and least-visited countries, lures adventure travellers with the promise of a genuine time warp. On the southern edge of the Sahara, it is being slowly lost to the encroaching sands: so go before it disappears. Visit the 14th-century mosque with a mysterious door that has never been opened, meet the 15,000 remaining nomadic Tuareg, join them on a camel ride and sleep out under the stars. Other Mali highlights include sailing a traditional pinasse down the Niger river, camping out on the banks, and visiting the Dogon villages, known for their cave-like houses with stone steps scoured out of the cliff face. Don't go if you need fluffy towels and ice in drinks.
Transport: Bus/boat/camel
Timing: 14 days
Fitness: B/C
Do it with: The Imaginative Traveller (0800 316 2717; www.imaginative-traveller.com) includes all the above from £1,575; next departure October 2004
6 Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City - Hanoi. Distance: 1,700km
The bicycle is still the main means of transport in Asia's friendliest emerging country so it's the perfect way to get to know the locals. You don't have to pedal the entire distance from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in the south to Hanoi in the north as all public transport happily carries two wheels. Push yourself up mountain passes, wreathed in mists like an oriental painting then take it easier on the flat, alongside emerald rice paddies, dotted with temples and curvy pagodas. Don't miss: the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong lived like human moles and outwitted the Americans; China Beach, a white sand stunner where the troops came for R&R; or a sampan trip down the Perfume River. Transport: Bicycle
Timing: 19 days
Fitness: B Do it with: Exodus Biking Adventures (020 8675 5550;www.exodus.co.uk) from £1,595, excluding cycle hire
7 Everest Base Camp, Nepal
Kathmandu - Mt Everest. Distance: 250km
To the Sherpas and Tibetans, Everest is 'Chomolungma' - Mother Goddess of the Earth. To the rest of us, the crown jewel of the Himalayas invokes tales of unbelievable human courage and strength. Today a trek to Base Camp should be within range of any fit regular weekend walker. Those who've done it say nothing compares with that roof-of- the-world feeling as you stand there in awed silence surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks. That said, the Himalayas are as famed for their vibrant rhododendron forests as their snowy tops. You'll also need a camera for cliff-side monasteries with football playing monks in saffron robes, colourful yak trains accompanied by local black-eyed urchins and vertiginous swing bridges decorated with fluttering prayer flags.
Transport: Foot
Timing: 20 days
Fitness: A
Do it with: Walks Worldwide (01524 242000; www.walksworldwide.com) for £1,795, including time off in Kathmandu before and after the trek
8 Silk Route
Kashgar (China) then Tashkent - Samarkand - Khiva (Uzbekistan). Distance: 1,570km
The tangled alleyways, spice-laden bazaars and grand domed architecture of ancient Silk Road stopovers such as Tashkent, Kashgar and Samarkand are childhood storybook cities. Once the only trading and cultural link between the East and Europe, these central Asian 'caravan' towns were almost forgotten until their rediscovery by Russian and British spies, which only adds to the frisson of mystery. Aim to do it at leisure, starting in Beijing with time for the Great Wall, before moving on to the Heaven Lake at Urumqi, Kashgar with its celebrated Sunday market, Tashkent and Khiva - a mythical living museum of a city with minarets, mosques, tiny, twisting streets and pomegranate-red desert sunsets.
Transport: Car/plane
Timing: 21 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Audley Travel (01869 276217; www.audleytravel.com) features all the cities above with connecting flights, private car and driver for £3,250
9 North West Passage
Anchorage, Alaska (USA) - Anadyr (Russia) by air, then boat to Bering Strait - Herschel Island - Cambridge Bay - Beechey Island - Resolute (Canada). Distance: 4,700km
Often known as the Amundsen Route, this is a genuine epic voyage on little-explored waterways, crossing the Arctic Circle, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The excitement starts from day one with a helicopter transfer from Anchorage, Alaska, to your trusty ice-breaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. As well as stunning ice and snow scenery, including calving icebergs and glaciers, you should encounter polar bears, seals, musk oxen and arctic foxes. Highlights include whale-watching in the Bering Strait, visiting remote Inuit communities, and viewing the weathered remains of the Maud, the schooner in which Amundsen sailed the north polar basin in the 1920s.
Transport: Ship
Timing: 20 days
Fitness: C/D
Do it with: Discover the World (01737 214250; www.discover-the-world.co.uk) offers the voyage above, including flights, from £6,969; next departure 26 July
10 Shogun Trail, Japan Tokyo - Fukuoka. Distance: 600km
A relatively new route, introduced in 2002, this follows the cross-country path taken by the Japanese nobility and Samurai warriors as they travelled each year from the feudal court in Tokyo to their regional palaces. Today's trail also makes use of the bullet train to Hakone, home to more than 60 temples and shrines; Kyoto, regarded as the cradle of Japan's culture as well as its loveliest city; and Hiroshima, where the Peace Memorial Park acts as a grim reminder of the first atom bomb. The route includes a cruise to the so-called 'Ninety Nine Islands', once important whaling ports, often overlooked by Western visitors .
Transport: Foot/train/boat
Timing: 13 days
Fitness: C
Do it with: Explore Worldwide (01252 760000; www.exploreworldwide.com) from £2,220
Questions related with trips:
After a vacation:
- Have you ever been abroad?
- Where have you been?
- Are you planning on going anywhere for your next vacation?
- If so, where?
- Who with?
- How long will you stay?
- Are you afraid of going abroad alone?
- Could you live in another country for the rest of your life?
- Describe the most interesting person you met on one of your travels.
- What was your best trip.
- What was your worst trip.
- Did your class in high school go on a trip together?
- If so, where did you go?
- How long did you stay?
- How did you get there?
- Do you have a driver's license?
- Do you like to travel with children? Why or why not?
- Do you like to travel with your mother? Why or why not?
- Do you prefer summer vacations or winter vacations?
- Do you prefer to travel alone or in a group? Why?
- Do you prefer to travel by train, bus, plane or ship?
- Do you prefer traveling by car or by plane?
- Have you ever been in a difficult situation while traveling?
- Have you ever been on an airplane?
- How many times?
- What airlines have you flown with?
- Have you ever been to a foreign country?
- Have you ever gotten lost while traveling? If so, tell about it.
- Have you ever hitchhiked? If so, how many times?
- Have you ever taken a package tour?
- How do you spend your time when you are on holiday and the weather is bad?
- How many countries have you been to? How many states?
- How many times have you traveled abroad?
- How much luggage do you usually carry?
- If you traveled to South America, what countries would like to visit?
- If you went to _(Insert a country name), what kind of souvenirs would you buy?
- If you were going on a camping trip for a week, what 10 things would you bring? Explain why.
- What are some countries that you would never visit? Why would you not visit them?
- What are some things that you always take with you on a trip?
- What countries would you like to visit? Why?
- What countries would you most like to visit?
- What countries would you not like to visit? Why?
- What country do you most want to visit?
- Why?
- Do you think you will ever go there?
- What do you need before you can travel to another country?
- What is the most interesting city to visit in your country?
- What is the most interesting souvenir that you have ever bought on one of your holidays?
- What languages can you speak?
- What place do you want to visit someday?
- What was the most interesting place you have ever visited?
- What's the most beautiful place you've ever been to?
- When was the last time your traveled?
- When you are on a long car journey do you play games or sing songs to occupy your time?
- What kind of games?
- What songs?
- Where are you going to go the next time you travel?
- When are you going to go?
- Who are you going to go with?
- How long are you going to go for?
- What are you going to do there?
- What kind of things do you think you will buy?
- Where did you go on your last vacation?
- How did you go?
- Who did you go with?
- Where did you spend your last vacation? Your summer vacation? Your Christmas vacation?
- Where will you go on your next vacation?
- Would you like to take a cruise? Where to? With who?
- Do you prefer traveling on a hovercraft or a ferry?
- Would you prefer to stay at a hotel/motel or camp while on vacation?
- Would you rather visit another country or travel within your own country?
- Would you rather go to a place where there are a lot of people or to a place where there are few people?
- Do you find more fulfillment from your leisure activities including vacations than from your job?
- Do you think the type of vacation one takes reflects one's social status?
- What are popular tourist destinations in your country?
- Have you been to any of them?
- Which would you recommend if you could only recommend one? Why?
- Do you prefer active or relaxing holidays? Why?
- Which is better, package tour or a tour you organize and book yourself?
- Why do you travel?
- Why do people travel?
- Would you like to go back to the same place?
- Did you find anything of particular interest? / Did you get attracted to anything special?
- What are some benefits of travel?
- Why do people travel?
- What is your favorite mode of travel?
- Have you travelled in business class?
- When you were a child did your family take a vacation every year?
- Do you prefer a budget or first class hotel? Why?
- Do you travel with a lot of baggage or do you like to travel light?
- What is your favorite method of travel at your destination? Train? Bus? Boat? Bicycle? Backpacking?
- What is the best kind of holiday for different ages of people? Children? Teenagers? Adults? Elderly people?
- Do you think it is a good idea to travel with friends, or alone? How about with your family?
- If you had $100,000, where would you go on holiday? How about if you had $10,000? What about $1,000?
- Which countries have you travelled to?
- Do you prefer hot countries or cool countries when you go on holiday
- Who makes the decisions when your family decides to go on holiday
- If you could choose one place to go this weekend, where would it be?
- Has the airline ever lost your luggage? What happened?
- On long flights do you usually walk around the plane to avoid health problems?
- Have you ever read an interesting question in an in-flight magazine? What was it?
- Is there any difference between young tourists and adult tourists?
- Do you think tourism will harm the earth?
After a vacation:
- Did you enjoy your last vacation? (How was your vacation?)
- How do you feel after a long vacation?
- How many days was your vacation?
- How much money did you spend on your last vacation?
- Did you encounter any problems during your vacation?
- How did you resolve them?
- Did you have a part-time job during the holidays?
- Did you have any bad experiences?
- Did you meet any interesting people? Cn you tell me about them.
- Did you notice any cross-cultural differences during your vacation?
- Did you study during the vacation? If so, what did you study?
- How was your trip?
- Why did you visit the place(s) you went to?
- How did you get there?
- Why did you choose the means of transportation that you chose?
- How much luggage did you take?
- Would you take the same or different equipment next time?
- In what ways did you obtain real satisfaction when you were on vacation?
- Was the place you went to very different from where you live?
- What were the women like?
- What were the men like?
- Were people friendly?
- Did you stay in a hotel?
- What was the daily rate?
- What historical sites did you visit and what did you learn?
- What interesting people did you meet? Tell me about them.
- What souvenirs did you buy?
- What was the best food you ate during your vacation?
- What was the most enjoyable thing that you did during your vacation?
- What was the most interesting thing that you did during the vacation?
- What was the most interesting thing you did during the holiday?
- Where did you go for your last vacation?
- Did people speak English there?
- Did you have any problems?
- Did you use a lot of English?
- How did you get there?
- How long did it take to get there?
- How long were you there?
- How much money did you spend?
- What did you do there?
- What did you see in each place?
- What kind of food did you eat?
- What souvenirs did you buy?
- What was the activity you enjoyed the most, and why?
- What was the weather/food/scenery like?
- What were the people/restaurants/scenic spots like?
- Where did you stay?
- Where did you visit?
- Where would you like to go next?
- Who did you travel with?
- Would you recommend your friends visit there, why or why not?
- Where did you go? How long did you stay? How did you get there?
- Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?
- Where in the world would you most like to go for your next vacation?
- Of all the places you visited, which would you recommend to your friends?
- How do you get to sleep when you are traveling on a plane?
- How far was it to the beaches, to the nearest town, village etc.?
- How long did it take you to get there?
- What sort of condition was the hotel in?
- Did the room overlook the sea?
- Did you have a nice view from your room?
- Have you ever run out of money when you are on holidays?
- Who is the most remarkable person you have ever met on holiday?
- How would you feel if there weren't any holidays?
- Have you ever been mugged while on vacation?
- What is the most exotic or strangest thing you ate on holiday?